Allentown homicide victim had been missing two days

Rocco Marinaro had been missing two days from his Keystone Cement job.

Allentown police are investigating a homicide in the 1900 block of Allen… (APRIL BARTHOLOMEW, THE…)

March 15, 2012|By Frank Warner, Of The Morning Call

An Allentown man was found shot to death Wednesday in the enclosed porch of his West End home, two days after neighbors reported shots or fireworks in the area.

The death of Rocco P. Marinaro, 57, of 1942 Allen St. was being investigated as a homicide, the fourth of the year in the city. Marinaro was manager of environmental compliance at Keystone Cement in East Allen Township.

Allentown police were dispatched at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday to Marinaro's brick rowhouse near 20th and Allen streets after a caller reported a man lying still on the porch, Assistant Chief Joseph Hanna said. Police found Marinaro inside the porch doorway, he said.

As police collected evidence, a neighbor said he heard two shots Monday night in the direction of Marinaro's house. Other neighbors also said they heard the noise. Hanna said city police looked into a possible shooting that night.

"We did get a call around the intersection of 20th and Allen at 8:41 p.m.," Hanna said. "It was reported as shots fired or firecrackers. Our guys got out there. They investigated it. They couldn't find any evidence that there were shots fired."

He declined to say whether the reported shots are related to Marinaro's death.

Stephen J. Hayden Jr., the plant manager at Keystone Cement, said Wednesday night he had not seen Marinaro for two days.

"He was in Monday, but he was not in yesterday or today," Hayden said, adding that Marinaro's absences were unexplained.

Lehigh County First Deputy Coroner Paul Hoffman officially pronounced Marinaro dead at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. Coroner Scott Grim ruled the death a homicide, attributed to a gunshot wound. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday morning.

Both city police and the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force are investigating the killing. On Wednesday afternoon, crime-scene tape was strung across Allen Street at 20th Street and at Lafayette Street, which is midway between 19th and 20th streets.

Marinaro bought the Allen Street house in 1986. That same year, he was best man at the wedding of Steven Onushco of Coplay. Both Marinaro and Onushco then worked together at Lehigh Valley Hospital.

Onushco, now the hospital's director of engineering, on Wednesday remembered Marinaro for his sense of humor.

"He was a great guy, funny, very intelligent," he said. "I think he was an only child. He always had stories about his parents in Wilkes-Barre. They had a parrot that drove him crazy."

Marinaro apparently lived alone. A neighbor said he had at least one cat. Unidentified women removed several cat carriers from the house Wednesday afternoon, and then the home's windows were boarded up.

William Pezoldt of the 600 block of 23rd Street watched the police investigators and wondered aloud about the future of the neighborhood.

"It's time to move out," he said. "You get the center city people coming up. College kids don't bother us. It's all the center city kids. It's working its way up."

Anyone with information on Marinaro's death can contact Allentown police by calling detectives at 610-437-7721 or the communications center at 610-437-7751.